Review: Oishi Sushi

My partner and I decided to try Oishi Sushi for lunch today as we’re always excited to try new Asian restaurants. The most important part of any restaurant is, of course, the food, so let’s start there. They have a pretty extensive menu, including a good selection of sushi, rolls, and some twists on the rolls like baked and deep-fried ones. We ordered the deluxe tempura and miso soup to start with, and he got the baked lobster roll for his lunch while I went for the sashimi & sushi lunch special.

The miso soup was absolutely delicious! Nice flavor, nice clouding, and was a great start to the meal.

The tempura was good; we got a mix of squash, sweet potato, one onion ring, and a chunk of broccoli. The batter was the right thickness and the vegetables were all done perfectly, though I would say the batter was fairly basic. It wasn’t as tasty as the tempura I’ve had at other restaurants, but not bad either. (I forgot to get a picture, sorry!)

My partner absolutely loved his baked lobster roll. I tried a bit of it and it did have great flavor and I’d agree it was a pretty good dish, and a little different from the norm. He also was full after, so it was a good size for lunch.

For my sashimi & sushi, it’s a bit of a mix. The sashimi was cut way too thick, especially the tuna. Likewise with the nigiri pieces, the fish was so thick it made it hard to eat in one bite the way it generally should be. The selection of sushi pieces was nice, and included tuna, salmon, shrimp, albacore, and one fish I forgot to ask them to identify. They all tasted fine and were perfectly serviceable bits of sushi. That said, the rice had almost no flavor and the tuna, at least, was not of the quality I’ve had at other local places. It didn’t quite have that “bang” higher quality tuna has. The rest were fine, though, and while I’ve had other white fish be very fishy, this one wasn’t.

Beyond the food, the atmosphere was great. Lovely decor, gorgeous woodwork, though I do wish they’d skipped the big TVs. It detracts from the otherwise nice ambiance. The outdoor seating doesn’t quite fit the look of the restaurant, but I’m guessing that was done to fit the area that seemed to be set up for live music instead.

As for service…well, it’s a new restaurant and they still clearly had some kinks to work out. The wait staff was very sweet, soft-spoken, and a little shy, but they seemed to be trying their best. That said, our waitress didn’t know some of the basics of the menu – like saying they didn’t have Sprite when the menu says they do – and there were some minor mistakes with our order. The biggest was we ordered the deluxe tempura (which had shrimp), but got the veggie instead. They fixed it on the receipt, so we didn’t mind. They also forgot the salad that came with my lunch special, but again fixed it quickly. The staff was great about keeping drinks refreshed and being sure we enjoyed everything.

Lastly, price. Even for lunch, this is not really a low-cost option, depending on what you get. We split the ticket in half since the waitress defaulted to that (and we didn’t want to deal with trying to say what went with who). So it ended up being about $22 each, plus tip. A very pricey lunch indeed.

I would certainly try Oishi Sushi again, though I’ll probably wait awhile to let them get into their groove and hopefully the lunch chef can get a better handle on properly thin slicing the fish.